


forget me not (state of fear)

by frankie_alex_quin



Series: plot bunnies [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Boggarts, But still set mostly in canon, Canonical Child Abuse, Crossover, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Just all the hurt, M/M, Multi, Other, Past Child Abuse, Post-Canon, Queerplatonic Kiritodobakudeku, Queerplatonic Relationships, Theodore Nott is a Prick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-13
Updated: 2020-11-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:27:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27536002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frankie_alex_quin/pseuds/frankie_alex_quin
Summary: Having traumatized eighteen year old wizards face a boggart isnota good idea. Having one extremely scarred Todoroki Shouto face a boggart is even worse.
Relationships: Bakugou Katsuki & Kirishima Eijirou & Midoriya Izuku & Todoroki Shouto, Bakugou Katsuki/Kirishima Eijirou/Midoriya Izuku/Todoroki Shouto, Draco Malfoy & Theodore Nott, Draco Malfoy & Todoroki Shouto, Hermione Granger & Harry Potter & Ron Weasley
Series: plot bunnies [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2109210
Comments: 14
Kudos: 156





	forget me not (state of fear)

**Author's Note:**

> Very much inspired by "Why Teaching Children With Boggarts is a Bad Idea" by Thewatermelonwarrior.
> 
> I am planning on making this into a series. Tbh, this is just me stalling and not working on our wip :/ but. (The series name right now is "Quirks and Magic" but that's just a filler and will ~~definitely~~ probably get changed later. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to comment them! Or you can ask anonymously on our tumblr.)

Boggarts. Shape-shifting non-beings that take on a person’s worst fear.

Harry doesn’t understand why they have to revisit boggarts, something they learned about in third year. Logically, he knows that their fears have probably, no, definitely, changed, especially after the Battle of Hogwarts. He’s curious as to what the transfer students’ boggarts are going to appear as. They didn’t have to go through the second Wizarding War, but Harry can vaguely recall seeing their faces on muggle television, which means that not only are they wizards, but they’re most likely Quirk-wielders. Hermione had mentioned something about that being exceedingly rare, as the mixing of magic and Quirks can lead to Squibs and Quirkless children, or children with only one of the powers.

There’s a scream, and Parvati Patil leaps back as the boggart transforms into the mangled corpse of Lavender Brown. The corpse shudders and moves, crawling on the ground, arms reaching out, and even Harry has to admit that that’s rather terrifying. Parvati is escorted out of the room, crying, and then it’s Harry’s turn.

He takes a step forward and lets out a long breath. The boggart takes several moments to choose its shape, before it eventually settles on a battlefield. The room is replaced by a large, open expanse of land, covered with the dead and dying. The place where the boggart had been is now occupied by a version of Ron and Hermione. They’re covered in blood and dirt and grime.

_ “Why didn’t you save us?” _ they ask in unison, voices raspy as they cough up blood.  _ “You could’ve saved us… Harry.” _

Harry is frozen, the wand in his hand suddenly feeling like nothing more than a wooden stick. What could he possibly do to make this scene funny, or at least slightly less morbid?

Looking back at the rest of the class, Harry can see that everyone else is at least slightly disturbed, too. The real Ron and Hermione are horrified, staring at their boggart selves with shock. Even Malfoy looks more pale than usual, silvery eyes blinking rapidly as if that would make the scene just go away. The transfer students look slightly less repulsed than everyone else, but Harry can see them shifting in apprehension, as though they’re expecting an attack. Bakugou’s face is still in it’s usual scowl, but it looks more uncomfortable, if anything. The redhead (Kirishima, was it?) and the Ravenclaw (Bakugou always calls him ‘Deku’, but Harry is highly certain his name is Midoriya) both look ready to fight. The Slytherin, Todoroki, still has his usual emotionless poker face, which Harry finds suspicious, though on closer inspection his eyes have narrowed, and he resembles a wary cat.

Harry flicks his wand and says,  _ “Riddikulus!” _ The landscape melts back into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, and the fake Ron and Hermione turn into spring riders, bouncing back and forth with their plastic smiles. It’s admittedly not very funny, and still rather creepy.

Harry takes a step back, rejoining the class as the red and white haired transfer student takes his place, wand in hand.

Immediately, the boggart shifts into a tall, muscular man with the same crimson hair as Todoroki, and a flaming beard and mustache. Harry has learned to not jump to conclusions, but it’s all too easy to assume that this man is Todoroki’s father. The man looms over Todoroki, who is already taller than many people in the class. He towers over Harry. He says something in Japanese that neither Harry nor any of his classmates understand. Except for the transfer students. Kirishima and Midoriya look both alarmed and terrified, and Bakugou looks even more enraged than usual, like he wants to blast the man to pieces.

Todoroki is still as stoic as ever, and Harry would think that he didn’t recognize the man at all, if not for the noticeable stiffness in his shoulders. As the man’s flames flare up, he lifts his wand and mutters the spell.

First comes the kettle. It’s just floating there, open with steam coming out, and everyone is confused for all of a second. It’s a rather odd fear, until a woman with white hair grabs the kettle off of a stove, her back turned towards the class. Then the sound comes, piercing and shrieking and causing some of Harry’s classmates to cover their ears in alarm. The woman grabs the kettle and turns, and her grey eyes are blown wide with hatred and loathing. It sends a spike of panic through Harry’s heart, and his other classmates are stumbling back, faces fearful.

The woman says something in Japanese, her voice a snarl as she stalks towards Todoroki. Todoroki himself doesn’t move, but another voice comes through the air, this one younger and becoming increasingly panicked as the woman gets closer and closer to Todoroki.

_ “Riddikulus,” _ Todoroki says, voice quiet but firm just as boiling hot water comes out of the kettle.

The screams of the young voice still echo in the classroom even after the scene is replaced by a Japanese tipping water fountain, water gently trickling into the bamboo tube. (It’s not funny, not remotely so, but it’s calming.)

The class is completely silent as Todoroki steps back. Midoriya walks forward, but not before giving his friend a worried glance, asking a silent question with his eyes.

_

Why did they have to be doing a lesson on boggarts? Shouto remembers reading something about how the boggart lesson is taught to this years, not eighth years plus, ahem, ‘transfer’ students. Stupid review lessons. 

He’s silent all through the rest of Defense Against the Dark Arts, and luckily it’s the last class of the day, because he would not be able to make it through another class without breaking down. Shouto watches as more students face their fears, and at one point, Izuku or Eijirou, or maybe both of them, he can’t  _ fucking focus, _ takes his hand. While Shouto had initially hated the billowing, oversized cloaks, he’s now grateful for the way they let grip his friend’s hand tightly without anyone noticing. Katsuki is a comforting presence behind him.

When the period is over, Shouto doesn’t rush out, instead taking the usual amount of time to put away his things and walk calmly out. The mantra  _ calm, cool, collected _ repeats in his mind.

“Oi, Todoroki.”

Shouto turns to see Theodore Nott walking up to him, smirk on his face. From what he’s heard from Malfoy, Nott used to be a rather solitary person, but after his father had been imprisoned in Azkaban as a Death Eater, he’d taken over as the sort of bully of Hogwarts (which Malfoy had admitted to being before the war). Nott seems to have made it his goal to annoy Shouto to no ends. Malfoy had considered the idea that Nott was jealous, but Shouto had shrugged it off, because what is there to be jealous of?

_ Calm, cool, collected. _

“Hello, Nott. What did you need me for?” If anything, Shouto’s voice is annoyed.

“Oh, nothing,” Nott says, in that way that means exactly the opposite. “I was just curious, your father is Endeavor, is he not?”

Nott’s obnoxiously loud voice seems to have attracted attention from the students passing by, and Shouto spots Malfoy walking towards them with an odd look on his face.

“Yes. What’s it to you?”

“Well, it’s just interesting to see that he’s a worse man at home than in public.”

At this point, Shouto is very much panicking, hiding it with a veneer of annoyance. “Your point is?”

“How could you have been such a disappointment that your parents beat on you when you were barely five years old?”

Everyone sucks in a collective breath, and the hallway is silent.

_ Calmcoolcollectedcalmcoolcollected _

Shouto does the thing he does best. He lies. (He’s no Aizawa, but he can lie loads better than, say, Midoriya.) “I don’t think you know what you’re talking about,” he gets out after a moment, going through several translations in his head. English is weird, okay? You can’t blame him. “How did you know what was happening? Unless you’re suddenly able to understand Japanese, which I doubt you’d ever be able to know perfectly.” It’s a passive-aggressive insult that flies over Nott’s head, but Shouto still feels the tiniest bit of satisfaction from saying it.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spots Granger raising an eyebrow. Of course  _ she’d _ get it. There’s a low chuckle from behind him, and he assumes that it’s Katsuki. (The blond has always been much more perceptive than anyone’s given him credit for.)

“Nott.” Malfoy makes it to said Slytherin, tapping him on the shoulder. “Pansy’s been looking for you. She mentioned something about plans?”

Nott’s face pales slightly, because even he is terrified at the aspect of facing an angry Pansy Parkinson, though the smug look quickly returns. “See ya, Todoroki. I’ve got a  _ date.” _

Shouto resists the urge to say, ‘I feel bad for her.’ Someone else, most likely Weasley, says it for him, but Nott’s already gone. Malfoy mouths a quick ‘sorry’ before following him, sending an apologetic glance over his shoulder.

The hall regains some of its liveliness as Nott turns the corner and is gone, but some people still glance at Shouto.

He sighs and walks off, footsteps more hurried than before, and he barely makes it to a secluded stairway before he falls apart. Shouto collapses onto the first few steps, his bag falling on the floor next to him.

_

Hermione flips through the large book, in a way that’s almost frantic.

“Whatcha doing?” Ron asks through a mouthful of food, still stuffing more chicken into his face.

“Manners, Ron,” Hermione admonishes out of habit. She doesn’t answer his question for a few moments, until she exclaims, “Aha!”

Harry takes a peek at the cover of the oversized book. “A Japanese-English dictionary,?” he questions. “What are you doing, Hermione?”

Hermione still doesn’t respond, busy scanning one of the pages. “Though so,” she finally says after a few moments.

“You thought  _ what _ ?” Harry asks impatiently, exasperated.

Hermione quickly glances around to make sure no one is close enough to hear before flipping the dictionary around so that it faces Ron and Harry. She points at one of the words.

_ Okaa-san, _ Harry reads.  _ (Formal) Mother _

“The voice called the woman ‘okaa-san,’” Hermione whispers, leaning across the table. “Okaa-san means mum, and that voice was likely Todoroki when he was younger.”

“His parents?” Ron chokes out, swallowing a massive gulp of food without chewing it from shock. “D’you reckon that he got his scar from his mum?”

“Probably,” Hermione murmurs, pulling the dictionary back and flipping through it a few times. “The man called Todoroki by his first name without any honorifics, so that’s most likely his dad. And the way his arm was raised at the end…” Both she and Ron glance at Harry.

The Dursleys, admittedly mostly Dudley, hit him, but it was rare and never left a  _ scar. _ To think that Todoroki’s own mum poured boiling water on his face is. Well.

Harry’s never known his parents, but he’s sure that they wouldn’t have scarred him for life.

_

_“Fuck,”_ he mutters in Japanese as he buries his head in his arms. Shouto doesn’t cry, but his body still shudders and shakes all the same. He hates moments like these, when he feels out of control and _weak._ A few moments later, he feels three familiar presences join him. Something wraps around his midriff from behind, and Shouto recognizes the strong, comforting arms of Eijirou. Izuku rests his head on Shouto’s shoulder, even while it’s still trembling. Someone gently pries his hands from where they’re twisted into his hair, and Shouto recognizes the familiar burnt sugar and caramel smell of Katsuki.

“Shut up,” Katsuki growls when Shouto attempts to say something. “You’re not alright, Half N Half. Just let us do this for you.”

“You told me that even heroes need to cry sometimes, Shoucchan,” Izuku adds. “So don’t worry, it’s fine.”   
Shouto wants to argue that no, he’s not crying, but his hands come up to touch his face, and  _ oh. _ That wetness. Those are tears, aren’t they?

“Crying is manly,” Eijirou agrees. “You’ve got to be brave to cry in public, and being brave is pretty manly.”

Shouto lets out a weak laugh. Here, surrounded by his three closest friends, he feels safe. Maybe he’s not in tip top perfect condition, after all, none of them are. But he’s filled with a soothing warmth, one that heals him from the inside. He’s not okay, but he’s getting better, and that’s what counts.

**Author's Note:**

> Background info:
> 
> Everything that has happened in canon in both universes has happened in canon. This is not one of those fics where we just integrate characters into a different fandom. If you noticed, the BNHA boys are constantly referred to by Harry as "the transfer students." So. Take note of that. That's not _exactly_ what it is, but I'll expand on that in other works.
> 
> [tumblr](https://frankiealexquin.tumblr.com/) || [Quin's instagram](https://www.instagram.com/yourlocalchillbuddy/)


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